Report: States Deep In Debt Too

POLITICO reports:

It’s not just the federal government - the states are broke, too.

The 50 state governments owe more than $1 trillion in unfunded pension contributions and health care obligations to retired public employees, according to an Associated Press survey of state-level budget data.

And the worst may be yet to come. Five states have budget deficits that account for more than one-fifth of the state’s general operating fund, and in seven more the deficit amounts to at least 15 percent of expected general fund revenues.

State governments also will have a 5 percent less revenue in the upcoming fiscal year than they did in 2007-08, before the collapse of major financial institutions prompted an economic recession, the AP found.